05/22 - Yojijukugo

Ten men, ten colours,

two countries, thousands of games,

one man named Hank


It's been great teaching in Japan so far, and one of the best parts is that I'm learning so much myself. It's a bit of a hokey statement people always make that "teachers learn from their students", but it does hold a lot of truth, especially in this sort of arrangement. In a free speaking class today we all taught each other different games, using English explanation skills, and even sometimes translating words used during the games into English. Some of the games the students taught me were absolutely fantastic, including the horensou (spinach) game and a Super Mario rhythm game. On top of some awesome games, the students have helped me when I ask questions about Japanese, and in many instances have taken it upon themselves to teach me Japanese phrases or show me cool aspects of the language. One such cool aspect is yojijukugo. Yojijukugo are four character sayings in Japanese. They function idiomatically. Some of them are really cool, and like the fun games, should be adopted into the English speaking world.

Because I teach the basic class and their skills are limited at the moment, the students ask simple questions a lot, like "what is your favourite ________?" I was thinking about this the other day, and it is actually very difficult to answer in most cases. I can easily name my favourite colour, favourite sports team in each sport, and that's about it. Things like food, music, brand, or even city are much more difficult, and I generally have to give a list. With something like music or food, it all depends on mood and situation, but that is not something that can easily be explained in a new foreign tongue.

I can easily pick a favourite yojijukugo though, at least at the moment. It is 十人十色 , pronounced as junin toiro. Directly translated it means "Ten men and colours", but a better translation would be what I used in today's haiku, "Ten men, ten colours." Anyone can notice in the kanji that the symbol for ten is used twice, preceding both the symbol for men/people and the symbol for colour. The saying has essentially the same meaning as the English idioms "different strokes for different folks" and "to each their own", but I think it sums up the same idea in a nicer way. Each person has their own tastes, likes, ideas and of course favourites. With all the crazy styles you see on the street, the cultural differences that are evident, and the crazy things you sometimes see go down, it is a useful phrase here in Japan. 

The last line of today's haiku references a different part of my teaching day, as in the more structured classes we began using the course textbook. In an ask and answer for information activity one of the characters in the book was named Hank. I thought it was a hilarious choice, and with my students shouting out "hu-unk" and other similar pronunciations it was quite entertaining. They kept asking what it meant, not even recognizing it as a name. I kept thinking of Hank Hill. The name choices by the editors don't get any better though, as there's a character named Dick coming up next week. Junin toiro!